MANILA, Philippines - New Bilibid Prison (NBP) high profile inmate and convicted kidnapper Herbert Colangco, in a sworn affidavit before the House Committee on Justice, said former Justice Secretary and now Senator Leila De Lima received collections from the illegal drug trade “for her plans.”

PHOTO CREDIT: PhilStar

Based on Colangco’s affidavit, which Rappler got from a government source, Colangco gave De Lima 3 million and the director of the prison 1.2 million monthly.

The inmate said that his co-convict Jaybee Sebastian approached him in January 2014 to discuss how their respective gangs could work together to carry out illegal drug trade operations inside the prison.

Two weeks after their talk, Colangco said that a certain Joenel Sanchez approached him to discuss “pushing drugs for the plan of De Lima.” At that point, Colangco had a falling out with Sebastian. His gang members eventually agreed with Sanchez’ proposal and were allegedly set to push at least 5 kilos of shabu every two weeks or 10 kilos of shabu monthly.

Colangco, who signed in the affidavit as “Herbert Colanggo”, also revealed that Sanchez attempted to convince him to fool Bilibid drug lords by collecting 30 to 50 kilos of illegal drugs without paying them. Colangco was also asked to submit a list of the names of the drug lords so that they could be transferred to another prison.

But Colangco said he did not agree with Sanchez’ proposal for fear that he would be on the losing end of the deal should De Lima or the director of NBP be out of power.

On December 15, 2014, the same day the law enforcers raided the Maximum Security Compound, Colangco said he personally met and spoke with De Lima.

(On December 15, 2014, we were brought to the NBI. On that day, I requested to speak with Sec. De Lima in the conference room. They allowed me to speak with Sec De Lima and I was told to sit beside her, to her left.)

(Mam, I agree to the instructions of Ronnie Dayan to Joenel, as long as you don’t transfer me.)

“Got it, got it,” De Lima replied.

Colangco was about to leave when De Lima told him: “Herbert, temporary ka lang muna doon.”

(Herbert, you will just temporarily stay there.)

However, Colangco said he stayed at the National Bureau of Investigation for 8 months. Sebastian, on the other hand, remained inside Bilibid while making sure his competitors were transferred to different prisons.

--Mini, The Summit Express

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